Sixty years of topographical abstractions from the late virtuoso of material experimentation
This comprehensive monograph surveys the work of Black American artist Jack Whitten, known for his swirling, mosaic-like abstractions and his innovative material experimentations, especially with acrylic paint. Resembling topographical maps, Whitten’s works rely heavily on the use of geometry and rhythmic, gestural structures to induce an artistic and spiritual process that he identifies as “mapping the soul.” Focusing on pivotal developments over his six-decade career, the publication is generously illustrated with Whitten's vast body of work. Throughout the volume, art historian Richard Shiff provides critical interpretations of Whitten’s painting, sculpture and artistic philosophy. Jack Whitten (1939–2018) was born in Bessemer, Alabama, and was raised in the Jim Crow South. He studied art at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where he was heavily involved in civil rights demonstrations. After moving to New York in 1960, he studied art at Cooper Union and quickly fell in love with, and was deeply influenced by, the Abstract Expressionist painters. Whitten had a solo exhibition at the Whitney in 1974 and a 10-year retrospective at the Studio Museum in Harlem in 1983. In 2014, a retrospective exhibition was organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego, traveling to the Wexner Center for the Arts in 2015 and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis in 2015 and 2016. Whitten lived in Queens, New York, where he died in 2018.
"Escalation II (x2 + y2 = 1), For Alexander Grothendieck" (2014) is reproduced from 'Jack Whitten: Cosmic Soul.'
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
Bookforum
David O'Neill
No standard monograph could quite hold Whitten’s artistic imagining, so JACK WHITTEN: COSMIC SOUL reimagines the art book as something that feels improvisatory and free, letting Whitten’s six decades of art roam aside commentary that keeps up rather than corrals.
ARTnews
[Presents] a thoroughly original body of painting and sculpture that meditated on race through the prism of his own cosmological philosophy.
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Featured spreads are from Jack Whitten: Cosmic Soul, Richard Shiff's definitive exploration of the important American painter's artistic and spiritual practice. If you want to understand Whitten, this deeply personal art historical deep-dive is literally essential—both a gorgeously designed and produced labor of love and a complete, searching excavation. A sample passage reads, Whitten "received verbal instruction from a coded soundtrack originating not in a jazz club or a recording studio but somewhere in the cosmos, coming from an 'unknown voice from the universe.' Imaginary or real, it hardly matters. Whitten had a way of turning from one field of human endeavor to another, from one mentality to another, without resorting to any customary devices of transition. In his thought, disparate concepts converged. If he had been a poet, we would have called his verbalizations poetry; but he was describing the manipulation of materials in a painter’s studio. 'I practice thought experiments in abstract painting. Thought experiments save time and allow me to do celestial navigation, i.e., I can travel anywhere I want without the encumbrance of matter.'" continue to blog
FORMAT: Pbk, 7.5 x 10 in. / 360 pgs / 154 color / 2 b&w. LIST PRICE: U.S. $45.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $62 ISBN: 9783906915739 PUBLISHER: Hauser & Wirth Publishers AVAILABLE: 12/13/2022 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: NA LA ASIA AU/NZ AFR ME
Published by Hauser & Wirth Publishers. Text by Richard Shiff.
Sixty years of topographical abstractions from the late virtuoso of material experimentation
This comprehensive monograph surveys the work of Black American artist Jack Whitten, known for his swirling, mosaic-like abstractions and his innovative material experimentations, especially with acrylic paint. Resembling topographical maps, Whitten’s works rely heavily on the use of geometry and rhythmic, gestural structures to induce an artistic and spiritual process that he identifies as “mapping the soul.” Focusing on pivotal developments over his six-decade career, the publication is generously illustrated with Whitten's vast body of work. Throughout the volume, art historian Richard Shiff provides critical interpretations of Whitten’s painting, sculpture and artistic philosophy.
Jack Whitten (1939–2018) was born in Bessemer, Alabama, and was raised in the Jim Crow South. He studied art at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where he was heavily involved in civil rights demonstrations. After moving to New York in 1960, he studied art at Cooper Union and quickly fell in love with, and was deeply influenced by, the Abstract Expressionist painters. Whitten had a solo exhibition at the Whitney in 1974 and a 10-year retrospective at the Studio Museum in Harlem in 1983. In 2014, a retrospective exhibition was organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego, traveling to the Wexner Center for the Arts in 2015 and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis in 2015 and 2016. Whitten lived in Queens, New York, where he died in 2018.
